What is your background within business?
I actually have no business background apart from a few retail experiences, one being a guitar shop. Originally, I thought about being a priest and then I wanted to have career being an Archivist within a library which led me to being heavily involved with academia.
What led you to create DSN Sound?
From a young age, I have been heavily involved in music, playing different kinds of instruments. My first paid job was playing the bass at a Hogmanay party when I was 13 years old. When I realised working within academia wasn’t something I wanted to continue to do, I decided to look at music and from my experience looked to see what musicians wanted.
I then realised there was a gap in the market for musicians who were looking for the sound of a heavy weight guitar on any guitar. This led me to start researching various options.
I took my idea of the Tone Magnet® to the University of Strathclyde where a student took it on as their project. It was there I could advance on my idea after it was discovered that the stronger the magnet the better the effect as it was using electronic magnetic force. It also meant I could make the product smaller which looked more appealing.
What are your main activities?
At the moment, I am focusing on Tone Magnet® and getting a customer base and so far, I have been able to get the product out to some known musicians Joe Bonamassa, an American blues rock guitarist, St. Ananas who is an youtuber from Austria and a few great musicians within Edinburgh. I am also investing time into research and development focusing on voice control practice equipment as I am keen to keep developing tools to help musicians. I think being creative helps with peoples’ wellbeing and I want to be able to support this.
What process did you take from idea formation, design, manufacturing and distribution?
I think for me when creating the product, I was always looking at the end user from the initial idea to the design and manufacturing. Therefore, I originally wanted to sell straight to the end user using e -commerce but I eventually realised this wouldn’t be so easy as a lot of the potential users wanted to see the product in person. I then had to think more about the visual appeal through packaging and marketing material. I will now be stocking the product in stores and will feature it on Amazon. It meant I had to look at the process a little differently but I think a benefit to this was that I didn’t have any preconceived ideas about how everything would go in the process beforehand so I was able to adapt to the changes well.
Can you let us know the highlights and lows of the experience?
My biggest highlight so far has been receiving great feedback from the users. In particular, St. Ananas got in touch after buying the product independently to let me know that he thought the product was great and it felt like he now had “multiple guitars” due to the Tone Magnet.
Then the only low I have really experienced is going through rough patches with funding and making sure there is a steady flow of income.
As a Chamber member how has the Chamber helped and supported the process?
I think being a part of the Chamber has offered a great deal of support through the events, workshops and mentoring. It really lets you be a part of the business community within West Lothian. It lets you see the true diversity within businesses and careers which I appreciate being able to be a part of it.
West Lothian Chamber is different to what I originally thought it would be as it understands businesses might need different support so gives a very modern and progressive approach to this.
In general, I really appreciate being able to approach the Chamber to get support, advice and be taken seriously as a business. I really do feel like it is being part of a community and a lot of the benefits I have received from being a member have been intangible while valuable.
Do you have any tips or knowledge that you would like to pass along to others starting their own company or designing their own product?
My biggest tip would be to understand that nobody knows what they are doing and your ideas are just as good as any if you work at them. I think it is important to know that you don’t need to know everything, you just need to ask questions, be confident and humble.
